The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-11-26

that in a Roman Catholic town in Germany young woman who could neither read nor write was seized with fever, during which, according to the priests, she was possessed by a polyglot devil ; tor she talked Latin, Greek and Hebrew, besides uttering sounds which, though not understood by her hearers, had doubtless mean ing, but belonged to languages un- known to them. "Whole sheets of her rawlings were written out," says Coleridge, "and were found to consist of sentences ineligible in themselves, but having slight connection with each other." Itappears rather incon- sistent with the theory of demoniac possession that some of these sentences were Biblical, but as it is proverbial that the devil can quote scripture for his purpose, this evidence might not have availed to save the girl from such rough treatment for her 'spos- session" as would probably have served very ill for her fever. Fortu- nately physician, who being skep- tically inclined, was disposed to ques- tion the theory of a polyglot spirit. determined to trace back the girls history. After much trouble he dis covered that at the age of nine she had been charitably taken by an old Pro- testant pastor, great Hebrew scholar, in whose house she lived till his. death. On further inquiry it ap- peared to have been the old mans custom for years to walk up and down a passage of his house, into which the kitchen opened, and to read to him. self in loud voice out of his books. The books were ransacked, and among them were found several of the Greek and Latin fHthers, together with a collection of Rabbinical writings. In these works so many of the passages taken down at the young woman's bedside were identified that there could be no reasonable doubt as to their source." If the girl had remem- bered these passages in normal way, and had merely uttered them during her sickness, the story would have been remarkable enough, since she was altogether uneducated. But, as a matter of fact, she remembered none of them in health, either before or after her sickness. It was doubtless the activity of the circulation during the access of fever which brought out as it were the impressions of sounds really recorded in the brain, but so lightly that, except during such stim- ulation, she remained unconscious even of their existence.
 A case cited by Dr. Abcrcrombie confirms the suggestive theory that the stimulus which fever gives to the circulation (sign of disease though it is) may bring dormant mental inn pressions into temporary activity. A boy at the age of four had undergone the operation of the trepan, being at the time in state eff stupor from a severe fracture of the skull. After his recovery he retained no recollec- tion either of the accident or of the operation. But at the age of fifteen, during an attack of fever, he gave his mother an account of the operation, describing the persons who were present and even remembering de- tails of their dress and other minute particulars.
 Even an accident may stimulate the memory in such sort as to recall long forgotten neutral impressions, and so to convey that the mind is regularly retentive. Dr. Abercrombie relates a case of this kind which suggests many perplexing problems in regard to memory. A man who had been com pletely stunned by a blow on the head remained still partially out of his mind when he had recovered from the first effects of the blow. In his unconscious state he spoke language which nobody in the London hos pital, to which he had been removed, could understand, but which was presently found to be Welsh. It was subsequently, discovered that though Welsh by birth, he had been thirty years away from Wales when the &C., cident occurred and had quite forgot ten his native tongue. On his res toration to full consciousness he lost his Welsh again completely, but re- covered his English.
 The effects of an accident-in de- stroying temporarily, or, so far as it appears, wholly-all neutral impress !, ions received within certain intervals, are sometimes curious enough. Thus, Dr. Carpenter mentions the case of a friend of his, clergyman, who was pitched out of a phaeton and received a severe concussion of the brain. On recovering he found that he had for gotten all that had happened, not only when the accident actually took place, but during some previous time The last thing he remembered was that he had met an acquaintance on the road about two miles from the scene of the accident.
 | Since the association may he ra.